Louisville athletics director Tom Jurich works under two separate contracts that run through 2023. / Pam Spaulding, The (Louisville) Courier-Journal

by Steve Berkowitz and Jodi Upton, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve Berkowitz and Jodi Upton, USA TODAY Sports

Louisville athletics director Tom Jurich already had one of the most attractive employment arrangements in college sports when he received a new and extremely unusual benefit in September 2011 â?? the ability to get fired for breaking NCAA rules or other misconduct and still receive a severance payment of more than $250,000.

Jurich works under a pair of nearly 16-year contracts that run until July 26, 2023, and combine to make him the nation's highest-paid AD at a public school at more than $1.4 million annually.

The agreements went into place Oct. 1, 2007, about 10 years after Jurich's arrival and well into a period of growth that has kept going. The school has moved from Conference USA to the Big East and is now heading toward the Atlantic Coast Conference with annual operating revenue that totaled nearly $88 million in 2011-12, according to the school's most recent financial report to the NCAA.

Jurich's primary employment arrangement is with the University of Louisville Athletic Association.

He also has a contract with the University of Louisville Foundation for fundraising services that pays $255,915 and guarantees $300,000 of the $646,000 in bonuses he can get each year from the ULAA, a non-profit organization under which the school's athletics department is organized and operated. That deal calls for nearly $500,000 in base salary and more than $300,000 in deferred income a year.

The deal with the foundation was detailed for the first time as part of USA TODAY Sports' examination of major-college AD's compensation in October 2011.

At that time, in response to requests to the university and the foundation, USA TODAY Sports received a copy of the foundation contract.

The contract's section on termination pay said, in part: "If the Foundation terminates this Agreement for cause, Mr. Jurich will be entitled to receive his Base Salary only through the date such termination is effective, but will not be entitled to any other compensation."

That also is roughly what his ULAA contract states, and it is fairly standard language concerning the consequences of a for-cause termination, which the foundation contract defined as Jurich:

materially breaching the contract.

failing to adhere to any written foundation or university policy if Jurich has been given reasonable opportunity to comply or to cure his failure to comply.

engaging in the "misappropriation (or attempted misappropriation) of any of the Foundation's funds or property."

getting convicted of, being indicted for, or entering a guilty plea or plea of no-contest with respect to a felony or any other crime for which prison is a possible punishment.

resigning from his position as Louisville's AD or accepting "any other position incompatible with his position" as Louisville's AD.

This winter, a new request to the foundation for Jurich's compensation documents produced two additional memoranda that had been sent by university and foundation president James R. Ramsey to Jurich.

The more recent of those documents, dated Sept. 15, 2011, contains two paragraphs that it says shall apply for the 2011-12 fiscal year and all later fiscal years.

The first paragraph is titled "Severance." It tells Jurich, in part: "If you are terminated by the University for cause you shall receive a lump sum payment equal to your actual total compensation excluding retention payments paid in the 12 month fiscal year ending prior to the year of termination."

The earlier of the two memos from Ramsey to Jurich, dated Nov. 2, 2009, states that Jurich's annual base salary from the foundation, effective July 1, 2009, has been increased to $255,915.

Asked to clarify several elements of the two memoranda, the foundation's board of directors this week provided an e-mail through athletics department spokesman Kenny Klein that stated there has been no change to the base salary since July 1, 2009.

Regarding the addition of severance pay to Jurich if he is terminated for cause, the e-mail said: "This is what the Board determined reasonable for Mr. Jurich in light of his outstanding record and integrity while serving as AD."